Friday, August 16, 2013

The Comic Pusher at Six Months

Thursday, August 22 is the six-month anniversary of The Comic Pusher blog. Many thanks to my friends and family for the support, and many more thanks to those who read and link to my various ramblings about the things that I love.

Below I list some random stats from the past six months of The Comic Pusher. Of note, my writing output since February when I started this has gone far beyond anything I have done previously - to date, over 95,000 words. In the 12 months between December 2008 and December 2009, I wrote just over 12,000 words, all for the JHU Blog. But in the three plus years that followed, I wrote nothing - not one word. My newfound ability to write is a result of many factors: a recent hospitalization, a refocusing of priorities - but more than anything, for the first time I am able to translate my passions about comics into the written word, and people have responded.

When I started The Comic Pusher this February I committed myself to a blog that reflected the depth and breadth of my comic and graphic novel knowledge, with the goal of writing thoughtful reviews and commentary on the medium and art form I love. Hopefully I have come close to achieving this with The Comic Pusher. I still have far to go before I am truly satisfied with my work here, but it I'd like to think I've made a pretty good start.

Thanks for reading - now some stats.

The ten most viewed reviews on The Comic Pusher, sorted chronologically:

My most read article to date, across the JHU Blog and The Comic Pusher, is my Definitive Love & Rockets Guide. Even Fantagraphics and Jaime Hernandez have commented on its completeness - if you have ever thought about getting into Love & Rockets (comics' supreme masterpiece) then this is the place to start.

My piece on The Incal is a close runner up, and my essay on Superman and Superheroes is a pretty good read. Usually whatever article I have just finished is my favorite, but I think this is a pretty representative list of the work I'm happiest with, warts and all. Not on the list, but by far my favorite thing I have written for The Comic Pusher, is my 10 articles on Naoki Urasawa's Pluto. I'm immensely proud of my writing about Pluto and I hope you can check those articles out. Also of note is my early article on Marvel's ridiculous trade policies. That article got reblogged by everyone under the sun and had a bunch of unforeseen consequences, and as such ranks highly for me.

I left all of my Pluto reviews out of this list; all told it is the book I have written the most about (16,388 words). Quantity does not always equal quality, but there is a fair amount of overlap between this list and my list of favorite writings. Make your own judgements.

Top ten most reviewed publishers:

Marvel

Image

DC

Misc Book Publishers

Misc Self Published

Dark Horse

Viz

Fantagraphics

Boom

Drawn & Quarterly

All told I have reviewed books from thirty different publishers including a half dozen international publishers. I have also reviewed webcomics, books, movies,videos, art exhibits and more here at The Comic Pusher. I don't review everything I read (and I read quite a lot) but I try to reflect the broad diversity of my comic intake. However, I have always and will always honestly review material sent to me by publishers and authors. If you are a publisher or author who would like me to review your work, feel free to email me at jeffey.o.gustafson@gmail.com.

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Going forward I hope to continue to review whatever moves me, and I hope you all continue reading. I believe I continue to get better at this, and I always appreciate feedback from readers and creators. Feel free to leave comments on any blog post, email me, or contact me on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for reading. As always, Like The Comic Pusher on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ComicPusher, and follow me on Twitter at @B5Jeff. You can also subscribe to The Comic Pusher via olde timey RSS and Email!